bullfrog

I'll try to get over there this weekend and give it a try.

This brings up an interesting (to me, anyway) question in my mind. Is EMV POS equipment "required" to respect the CVM list ordering on the card? Obviously a POS can't force a card to use a CVM that it doesn't physically support, but if my card says PIN is CVM #1, signature #2, and the POS is capable of handling PINs, is it permitted to skip PINs and ask for a signature? Likewise, if sig is before PIN, can the retailer choose to require PINs on cards that support them?

It appears that in fact the CVM ordering is only a "suggestion" to the retailer and in the end they can choose whichever CVM they want as long as it is somewhere on the list. HD ignoring PINs is one piece of evidence in this direction, as is Walmart choosing to use NO CVM on low-dollar purchases even if signature is higher on the CVM list than NO CVM (but if PIN is higher than sig, then they appear to always ask for PIN, even for small charges.)

In the same vein, when Australia switched to PINs last summer, from the articles I read it sounded like they just reprogrammed all the terminals on the changeover day, and didn't necessary hand out new cards to everyone. Actually it sounds like the terminals were programmed to always require PIN but ONLY for Australian cards, as the published materials indicate that cards from other countries might still require signatures. But I could be totally wrong about all of that, as I have (sadly) not yet visited Australia.